It is a significant concern of, particularly, women to maintain the healthy and beautiful skin. However, the condition of the skin is always affected by factors such as humidity, ultraviolet rays, cosmetic compositions, aging, diseases, stress and eating habits. As the result thereof, various skin troubles such as the decrement of various functions of the skin and the aging of the skin occur. Of these, wrinkles occur due to dermal aging by aging, light aging by exposure to sunbeam, or the like. More specifically, cells for producing fibers of the dermis are made small and lessened by exposure to sunbeam or with the increase in age. In particular, collagen fibers are lost to a great extent, and so the skin is aged by degeneration of the dermis, reduction of subcutaneous adipose tissue and the like, which forms the cause of wrinkling, relaxation, and loss of resilience.
Various compositions and methods have heretofore been proposed for preventing or treating the aging effects such as wrinkling [Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 185005/1987, 502546/1987, 72157/1990, 288822/1990 and 41419/1995, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOHYO) No. 510542/1994 (through PCT route), etc.]. However, all of these proposals have not been fully satisfactory in the effect of modifying wrinkling (or preventing wrinkling and removing wrinkles). There has thus been a demand for development of cosmetic skin care compositions excellent in the effect of modifying wrinkling.
It is an object of the present invention to provide wrinkling modifiers and anti-aging cosmetic compositions which can solve the above-described problems, are excellent in the effects of suppressing wrinkling without impairing normal dermatophysiology and removing wrinkles, and give users a pleasant feeling upon use.